Healthy Choices at Panera

Panera is one of those places that seems healthy, but has a lot of pitfalls, so you have to be very diligent in what you order. The bagels are large, and therefore very high in calories. Of course, they also have a variety of healthy and delicious options.

Sourdough Roll, per 2.5 ounce serving:
200 cal, no sat fat, 1g total fat, 400mg sodium, 39g carbs, no sugars, 1g fiber, 7g proteinThe Sourdough Soup Bowl and Sourdough Round loaf are similar (per serving). They’re made with refined flour (like most of their breads), and are higher in sodium than most of the other breads.

Bagels – Better Choices

Panera’s bagels range in calories from 290 to 430, in fiber from 2 to 6 grams, in sugars from 3 to 30 grams, and in sodium from 420 to 740 mg.

Whole Grain Bagel
370 cal, no sat fat, 3.5g total fat, 420mg sodium, 70g carbs, 5g sugars, 6g fiber, 13g proteinAlthough on the high end in calories, it’s also highest in fiber, second-highest in protein, and lowest in sodium of all the bagels.

Cream Cheese Spreads – Better Choices

The Reduced-Fat Spreads are the better choices here, though it’s tough to tell from the nutrition facts, since the portions are “small enough” to allow for many of the nutrients to be rounded-down to zero.

Several of the 2-ounce servings listed in the nutrition guide include 0.5g trans fats, which means the 1-ounce servings also contain some trans fats, even though it says zero.

The “Better Choices” then, are the ones that show no trans fats in the 2-ounce serving, meaning they’re lower in trans fats than the others, though it’s impossible to tell by what degree. Trans Fats are so bad for you that I think it’s worth a few extra calories to avoid them.

I’m not even going to bother listing any of these; they’re high in fat, sugar, sodium… then again, if you compare them to a bagel with 2 ounces of cream cheese, they’re often about the same. Let’s move on.

Soups & More – Better Choices

When part of a “You Pick Two” order, these are about 8 ounces. If ordered separately, they’re about 12 ounces. I’ll use the 8 ounce nutrition information here. (Get a bowl and add 50% to these numbers).

Panera Kids™ – Worst Choice

Menu Mondays are my recommendations for the most healthful options at chain restaurants. Although it may be tough to find “perfect” options when eating out, it’s important to choose “better” whenever possible, and I hope these guides will help make that easier for you.

indicates the “best-of-the-best,” and indicates the “worst-of-the-worst,” more or less.

Have to disagree with the salad section. It all depends on if you are getting the salad as a meal or as a side. For example, if you get the chicken Caesar salad as a meal, it is a very healthy option. Not sure how you consider it high sodium considering the “healthy” salads you listed were half sized but contain well over half the sodium of the chicken Caesar. Also the fact that you list a 370 calorie bagel with 70g of carbs as a good choice is a joke. Not a bad article but could use a little more work.

I don’t agree with recommending “low-fat” options (cream cheese) if you are claiming to be a whole foods website. Anything low-fat has just had the nutrients sucked out and replaced with PROCESSED ingredients made to mimic those healthy fats taken out. You are better off eating full fat dairy and just keeping it in check.

In general, I definitely agree! When I wrote this post back in 2010, I was focusing more on calories than I do now… now I’m also far more concerned about eliminating processed food.

However, at chain restaurants, I’ve found that most of the “regular” items are often just as processed as the “low-fat” items… so if that’s the case, and you’re going to eat there regardless, I figure you might as well get the lower-calorie option and at least save a few calories.

The ingredients are practically the same. Although I wouldn’t actually recommend either of these, if I had to choose, I’d go with the reduced fat version and save a few calories (and 1/2 gram trans fat).

In terms of the low fat comment, it might be helpful to know that many people have a disorder called gastroparesis and have no choice but to eat extremely low fat and low fiber foods or suffer severe nausea, vomiting and other symptoms. There are also other disorders that require low fat foods regardless of nutrition, so it is always helpful to know the full
nutrition content of foods.